


Saving Face

by RockSunner



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Family, Gen, Horror, Mutilated character, Post-Apocalypse, Secrets, Survival, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-24
Packaged: 2018-04-30 20:15:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5178209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RockSunner/pseuds/RockSunner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What will Pacifica do in the Weirdmageddon? Can she and her father survive? Spoilers for W pt 1 and 2. All characters belong to Alex Hirsch, not me.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Survival

Pacifica was walking with her parents in downtown Gravity Falls.

"Behave yourself, Pacifica," Priscilla Northwest said. "Show us you can be trusted to act properly, and we'll forgive that little ghost incident and let you leave the house on your own again."

"Yes, Mother," said Pacifica. She had stopped trying to convince them she had done the right thing, and was just trying to get along.

"This is the first time we've been out since that disastrous party," said Preston. "We missed a huge political opportunity because of all the confusion and embarrassment. Normally, we would have been active participants in the mayoral election, pulling strings to get a candidate favorable to our interests elected. Instead we stayed out of it, letting a local shyster, a used-car salesman, and a fork-mishandling biker run for the office."

"This evening the new mayor is out with his banner on, having a meet and greet with the public," said Priscilla. "Even though he doesn't know how to place a fork, we must ingratiate ourselves with the new town leadership."

"Let the adults do the talking," said Preston. "We know how to save face after a social fiasco."

A wind whipped up, mussing Pacifica's hair. Then a loud voice shouted something she couldn't understand, and the sky opened in a glowing, x-shaped split. Everyone froze in their tracks, looking up at the sky.

A yellow triangular creature appeared above them. Pacifica recognized it as the main figure on an awful tapestry that hung in an alcove of the mansion. It had always given her nightmares, and it was even worse in real life.

"Alright, listen up you one lifespan, three dimensional, five sense skin puppets!" it said in a deep voice before switching to a higher-pitched one. "For one trillion years I've been trapped in my own decaying dimension, waiting for a new universe to call my own. Name's Bill! But you can call me your new lord and master for all of eternity!"

The being hovered over the statue of Nathaniel Northwest, melting it down in an instant.

"Now meet the gang of inter-dimensional criminals and nightmares I call my friends," said Bill, calling them out by name as they came through a hole in the sky. "8 Ball! Kryptos! The being whose name must never be said! Ha ha, what the heck. It's Xanthar. Then of course there's also Teeth, Keyhole, Hectorgon, Amorphous Shape, Pyronica, Pacifier, and these guys. This is our town now, boys!"

The monsters clustered together and laughed.

The new mayor tried his best. "Now see here, you unholy triangle fella. As mayor, I strongly urge you to git...git on out of here!"

"Yeah! Things with one eye are weird!" called a woman with one eye closed.

"We don't like out-of-towners," said Grenda, a girl Pacifica used to pick on.

"We punch what we don't understand!" yelled a large lumberjack, ripping open a mailbox with his bare hands.

Preston spoke up, "I would just like to say that as a rich capitalist I welcome your tyrannical rule. Perhaps I could be one of your, uh... horsemen of the apocalypse?"

"Dad!" said Pacifica in disgust.

"Not now, sweetie, the grownups are talking," said Preston.

Bill appeared to consider this. "Oh wow, that's a great offer. How 'bout instead I shuffle the functions of every hole in your face?"

With a gesture of Bill's hand, Preston Northwest's face was disfigured. His ears moved to where his eyes used to be, one huge eye was his mouth, and his nose moved to his left ear.

Preston gave a muffled cry and fell to the ground. Pacifica clung to her mother in terror.

The crowd broke and ran. Priscilla pulled away from Pacifica and ran as fast as she could in high heels, abandoning her mutilated husband and her daughter. The whole crowd fled down Main Street.

Not Pacifica: she grabbed her father by the hand. While the monsters were distracted by the mass of fleeing people, she pulled him behind the police station to hide. People were being turned to stone, carried off by eye bats, and driven crazy by bubbles.

"Dad, come on," said Pacifica. "If you want to survive, we've got to get inside somewhere."

Her father moaned.

"I'm not going to leave you," said Pacifica. "I decided after you and Mom jumped into the panic room and left people to die in the mansion that I'd never be like that."

She looked him square in the face, which was hard.

"Can you hear me? Do you understand?"

Her father nodded.

"Can you see?"

He shook his head.

"That demon really messed you up. You don't want to know how bad your face looks. There are things out there that could turn you to stone, if you want a quick way out. Do you want to live?"

He nodded.

"Then come with me. There are fires starting and I think a stone building would be safest. I'm taking you to the Museum of History."

She cautiously lead the way, ducking behind and between buildings, and hiding whenever eye bats flew overhead.

"There may be things we could learn there that could help," said Pacifica. "This thing has a history and somehow it's connected to our family, if that tapestry we have means anything."

Preston moaned again.

"Quiet, we're almost there. Survival first. We're in survival mode now."

They ducked inside the museum.


	2. Scrounging

Chapter Two: Scrounging

Once inside the museum, Pacifica looked around. It was deserted, as far as she could tell. Probably the museum workers had come out to greet the mayor, and then ran away when things got weird.

"Come on Dad, we need to scrounge for food and weapons," said Pacifica.

Her father answered with his usual muffled moan.

In the gift shop, Pacifica found Gravity-Falls-themed shopping bags. She took a couple and gave one to her father to carry.

In the historical exhibits, she found an old hatchet and a couple of knives. Even better was an old golf club, her weapon of choice.

She found a break room with vending machines. With the golf club she broke the glass case and took all of the snacks.

"I hope you can eat some of these, Dad," Pacifica said. "We'll try when we get somewhere less exposed."

He did have a small mouth where his right ear used to be. She hoped it still worked, or she wasn't going to be able to keep him alive for long.

She also found a box containing bottled water, and she put several bottles into the bag.

There were some Pitt soda machines. It was something more to drink, and the little bits of fruit left on the pits might provide some vitamins. She used money to dispense a few.

"I can't waste more time on the soda right now. I can't break into the metal vending machines without some tools," Pacifica said. "Maybe I'll try later."

Now they were loaded up with as much as they could carry, so Pacifica started looking for a room where they could hole up.

"Corridors with exhibits are too spooky. What if some weird magic from the demon out there makes them come to life? Then spending a night in the museum would be a very bad thing."

She found a strange room full of eyes. All the eyes were looking in one direction, at a triangular piece of rock with a single eye on it.

"Arggh! This room must have been made by Bill worshipers," Pacifica said. "I'm going to take out some rage on that demon's face."

Pacifica swung her golf club hard into the stone, and the blow pushed it into the wall. There was a grinding noise behind her, and she turned to see the fireplace slide open.

"A secret passage!" said Pacifica. "Not many people know about this, I bet."

They went inside and found a button to open and shut the panel. There were stairs going down, lit by torches.

"Perfect. We'll use this as our underground panic room."

Pacifica led her father down the stairs, past a red curtain, and into a large room with a chair. They put down the bags.

"You can rest here, Dad," said Pacifica, leading him to the chair. "I think we'll be safe here for a while."

Preston moaned and made gestures at his eye.

"I bet that eye is feeling awful," said Pacifica. "You have no eyelid and it must be getting dry."

Pacifica opened a bottle of distilled water and poured it on her father's eye. His moans indicated some relief. She tried pouring a little water into his ear-mouth, and found he was able to swallow it.

"Keep the bottle of water to moisturize your eye, and stay here while I look around a little," said Pacifica. "This is a big place. If it was run by a secret society of Bill worshipers there may be some answers here about what brought him here and how to make him leave."

She set off in search of forgotten knowledge.


	3. Society

Pacifica wandered the corridors of the underground base, golf club in hand.

In one room she found hooded robes hanging up on hooks. She took one down and looked it over. It had a crossed-out eye on the top of the hood. Did these belong to the Bill worshipers?

"These might be useful as clothes," she thought. "And I could make a pile of them to sleep on tonight."

Pacifica took one and put it on; it was a little chilly down here. She left the hood down.

She noticed a room with tubes leading into it, the kind that tellers use at bank drive-up windows. Inside was a large grim-faced statue, and the floor was littered with tubes, all with names of people in town.

On one side sat a television-like device, and one of the tubes was in it. Pacifica found the play button.

"My name is Fiddleford Hadron McGucket, and I wish to unsee what I have seen."

The tape recorded McGucket's downfall from a brilliant researcher to the local kook he was today. It explained the origin of the group with the crossed-out eye. McGucket had founded it after inventing a device to erase memories.

Pacifica didn't think it had much to do with their current situation until the end, when the insane McGucket babbled something and put his fingers around his eye in a triangle shape. That made her jump.

"This does have to do with Bill! I'll have to watch everything and see what else there is," Pacifica thought.

Pacifica looked over the tubes on the floor, and her own name jumped out at her. She put her tube into the player.

* * *

The tape showed her fastened into the chair, struggling to get out.

"Pacifica Northwest, what did you see?" asked a man off-screen with a British accent.

"Crazy little golf-ball people at the mini-golf park tried to kill me," her recording said. "I got away, just barely. I'm going to sue that place, and own them."

The tape showed her being blasted by a glowing ray from a gun.

"Pacifica Northwest, what do you know of golf-ball people?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. I just want to go home," Pacifica said in a confused voice.

"It is unseen!" chanted the group of robed figures in unison.

* * *

So that was how it worked. Pacifica remembered the grudge match with Mabel at Ye Royal Discount Putt Hutt. Mabel had been doing well, outscoring her on several holes in a row. Something happened that was hazy in her memory. In the end, Mabel admitted to cheating and gave her a sticker and an apology. (Pacifica took the sticker off so her parents wouldn't see it, but she still had it in her room.) They had given her a ride home and a taco to eat in the car.

It seemed that she and Mabel had settled things between them and were on the way to being friends. Dipper not so much, right then, but things had warmed up between them on the night of the party and the ghost. Now she saw that the two situations had much in common. In both cases she bonded with someone after they had to fight together for their lives.

Pacifica sighed. She missed Mabel and Dipper, and wondered how they were getting on in the apocalypse. She was lonely; her dad was more responsibility than company. The videos of lost memories would give her something to do, at least.

* * *

Days passed, keeping her father and herself alive and watching the many tapes. Most were useless, random encounters with gnomes, manotaurs, and lake monsters. Pacifica had discovered her father's tape, but she noticed that another space on the same row had a pressure switch. She didn't want to set off an alarm and attract anyone into their one safe haven, so she left it alone for the time being.

Then one day she saw another person in a robe, slipping across a corridor in front of her.

Pacifica called out, "You! Come back here!"

She gave chase, her golf club ready. It was just one person, on the small side, and she thought she could handle them. She ran after them and soon cornered them in the Hall of the Forgotten (she had learned from the tapes what the room was called).

"Please don't hurt me," said the person.

"Who are you?" Pacifica demanded.

The person lowered their hood. It was a woman with short brown hair.

"Agatha Doakes, member of the Society of the Blind Eye. Who are you?"

"Pacifica. Does your group worship that monster who took over?"

"No, the opposite. We're opposed to all sorts of weirdness. When we had our memory gun we helped people to forget things like that. Now there's so much weirdness going on constantly we could never catch up, even if we got our gun again," said Agatha.

"I've seen tapes of how you 'helped' people, including me. It wasn't very nice... but the enemy of my enemy is my friend. If you're against Bill, maybe we can join forces. We need to stop the weirdness at the source, and worry about clean-up later. Are there more of you?" asked Pacifica.

"No. Everyone else had their memory erased. I've been going all over town spray-painting our Blind Eye logo on things, hoping to stir up their memories and to get some of them back, but so far it hasn't worked," said Agatha.

"What happened to everyone?" asked Pacifica.

"People came down here a while ago and learned our secrets. They wanted to stop us, so they tied us up to a pillar and used our own gun on us. I'm a bit of an escape artist. I was on the far side of the pillar and I slipped out of the ropes and hid to the side. After they used the gun I moved back into place and pretended I was affected, too. I walked out with the others," said Agatha.

"Agatha, I'm not normally a trusting person, but I'm desperate. I'll join forces with you, even join your society, if you'll help me gather information to use against the demon."

"All right, Pacifica. I'll make you an honorary member. Do you have any idea what to do?"

"One thing, at least. Help me get the records on the shelf behind the statue, without setting off an alarm," said Pacifica.

"What is once forgotten should stay forgotten," said Agatha.

"We need any scraps of information we can get. Your founder, McGucket, knew something about Bill. He may even have worked on an invention that helped bring Bill here. There could be more, and it looks like those alarmed memories are the most important ones," said Pacifica.

"Our founder was Old Man McGucket? That's hard to believe."

"You've forgotten who your founder was?"

"Yes, we used the device on ourselves quite a bit, maybe too much, now that I think about it."

"So, will you help me? Do you know how to turn off the alarm, if there is one?"

"Yes, there's a hidden switch behind the base of the statue."

They turned off the alarm and Pacifica reached up to the shelf.

"Now for the memories of Preston Northwest," said Pacifica.


	4. Secrets

Pacifica asked, "What's with this shelf of memories, anyway? Why were they alarmed?"

Agatha Doakes, last member of the Society of the Blind Eye (except for Pacifica, who has just joined) answered, "That's the Leadership Ledge. Memories of leaders of our society. That blank space on the right side is for our founder."

"Old Man McGucket," said Pacifica. "I saw his tape. So that means my father used to lead you?"

"I'm a little hazy on that, but I think so, yes," said Agatha.

"And the one beside his, Jeffrey Cannuck?"

"That's our last leader. He went by the nickname of Blind Ivan," said Agatha.

"What happened to him?" asked Pacifica.

"Our enemies wiped his memories worst of all. He doesn't even remember his name. Now he's a wandering banjo minstrel who calls himself Toot-Toot McBumbersnazzle."

"That's terrible," said Pacifica.

"Someday I want revenge on them," said Agatha.

"I'll help you," said Pacifica. "But we have to deal with Bill first."

"If we can," said Agatha. "It seems hopeless."

"We have to try," said Pacifica. "I'm going to get my father to listen to his tape in case we have questions."

"He's here with you?" asked Agatha.

"Yes, but don't be surprised that he's wearing one of your robes with the hood up," said Pacifica.

"Our former leader is welcome to a robe," said Agatha.

"It's because of what Bill did to his face. You don't want to see it if you don't have to, since you don't have a memory gun to help you forget."

* * *

A young Preston Northwest spoke. Beside him was the young McGucket, with his hair going prematurely gray, a confused look on his face.

"I am Preston Northwest. My family credentials need no introduction. And beside me is Mr. Fiddleford McGucket, the inventor of an amazing device to erase memories. A few days ago he had an accident and ran into my car."

"I did?" asked McGucket.

"Don't interrupt, McGucket. He apologized and explained about his memory device. He was hoping to help people to forget traumatic events, especially encounters with the supernatural. I offered to help him found a secret society, which will be just the thing to help keep this town under control, that is to say, to control the issue of troubling memories.

"I offered the use of these secret rooms below the museum, which have been in our family for generations. I also gathered all of you, good candidates for this work.

"Not only will we be helping the town, we will be able to remove any troubling memories of our own. For example, I want to be able to pass a lie-detector test, in case it ever comes up, about a certain theft of money from my father's safe. Will you help me operate the device, McGucket?"

"Sure thing," said McGucket. "You just twiddle the knobby here and spell out what you wanna forget, like 'THEFT FROM FATHER'S SAFE'. Then just point and shoot."

"And it's safe?" asked Preston.

"I'm living proof," said McGucket.

"Well, yes, but we'll make sure not to use it to excess," said Preston. He operated the gun and then smiled. "Whatever it was I wanted to forget, I don't recall it any more."

There was a cheer from the people in the room.

* * *

More records followed, showing erasure of tax frauds and embezzlements over the years.

"Dad, you've done a lot of bad stuff," said Pacifica. "I knew our ancestors were crooks from that gallery room at home, but not about you."

Preston just shook his head, and scrawled on a piece of paper that Agatha had found for him, "I don't remember."

"It hardly matters now," said Agatha. "There's no law and order."

The last record had something of interest.

"I have something major to forget this time. I just fulfilled a deal with a demon," said Preston. "It's been a family issue for generations. One of my ancestors made the deal a long time ago, to rise from a humble street sweeper to be a leader of men, in exchange for future favors from his descendants."

"What were the specifics of what you did, so that I can spell it out and not erase too much?" said an off-screen voice with a British accent.

"I sent my daughter Pacifica to a fair with orders to win an animal," said Preston.

"That doesn't sound too bad," said the other voice.

"It could have been much worse. It was part of a chain of events to bring the demon into power in this world. My child is part of a wheel of prophecy symbols: the Llama."

"All right, what shall I erase?"

"Do this: 'PACIFICA IN DEMON PROPHECY'."

The erasure happened.

"I also want to resign from the Society of the Blind Eye, and turn leadership over to you, Blind Ivan. Please erase my memories of the Society."

This was also done.

* * *

"You did what!? You made me part of a scheme to bring that demon into the world!?" Pacifica shouted at her father.

Preston wrote, "I forget. I'm sorry."

"I won a stupid chicken, and it pecked my head all the way home," said Pacifica. "And now Bill is here ruling the world, somehow thanks to that. No wonder you thought he might do something nice for you."

Preston wrote, "He cursed my face."

"You deserve it," said Pacifica.

"Hold on," said Agatha. "That memory erasure was very specific. You must know a lot about the prophecy still."

Preston nodded, and wrote, "I will help all I can."

"What is the wheel of prophecy symbols?" Agatha asked.

Preston drew a ring of symbols. (He had recovered a little sight in his one remaining eye, enough to see at close range.)

"There's the Llama," said Pacifica. "A star with a rainbow, a heart, glasses, a question mark, ice, a fish or something, a pine tree, a star with an eye in it, and a six-fingered hand. I've seen some of those around town. The pine tree is on Dipper's hat, and the hand is on his book. The fish thing is on Stanford Pine's fez. Do you know who the others are?"

Preston wrote, "No."

"If we can find these people, and figure out what we did, maybe there's a way to undo it," said Pacifica.

"Maybe," said Agatha.

"And what the symbols mean. Like, why am I the Llama?" asked Pacifica.

Preston wrote, "My father did illegal genetic experiments. You have some llama genes."

"Oh, wonderful!" said Pacifica. "Why?"

Preston wrote, "To be trainable as the perfect daughter."

"You're horrible," said Pacifica. "I wish I had just..."

"We should watch the other tape, of Blind Ivan," Agatha suggested, trying to distract Pacifica from the family fight that was developing.

"I guess," said Pacifica. "But I doubt he knows anything."

* * *

"My name is Jeffrey Cannuck, though I prefer to be known from now on as Blind Ivan. I have two things I wish to forget."

"What are they?" asked McGucket's voice.

"First is a misspelled tattoo. In my foolish youth I had my head tattooed so I could work as a model for a phrenology teacher. That's the science of reading personalities through the bumps on one's head. I've since learned it's complete nonsense, but it's too late now. One tattoo says 'REELEX' instead of "REFLEX'. I'm ashamed of it and I want to forget," said Blind Ivan.

"What else?" asked McGucket.

"I worked for a time with the same genius researcher that you once did, and like you I had a terrible experience that I wish to forget," said Ivan. "The researcher wanted to install a metal plate in his head to protect his mind from invasion by a dream demon. He couldn't trust anyone, but he had to have someone monitor while his robotic surgeon was doing the operation. He also had to have help building a secret bunker under a fake tree near his home, and stocking it with emergency food supplies to last for years, in case of an apocalypse he was afraid would happen."

"That could be real bad, I reckon," said McGucket. "I sorta remember doin' some calculations on a laptop computer about that... Naw, I plumb forget."

"One night I was working late with him and I started dozing off. Something came into my mind, a demon who looked like a yellow triangle, who said his name was Bill Cipher. He was trying to get me to make a deal with him when the researcher followed him into my mind and forced me to wake up. He knew an incantation to do that sort of thing. He had a machine to encode my thoughts so the demon could never get into my mind again. But it was all absolutely horrifying. I want to forget it all now."

"What shall I erase?" asked McGucket.

"Do this: 'MY TIME WITH STANFORD PINES'," said Ivan.

The eraser gun did its work.

* * *

"Stanford Pines!" said Pacifica. "All these years he's been fooling the town with his idiot act, but he's the genius behind Dipper's book of magic!"

"When he was running for mayor, sometimes he would act ridiculous, but sometimes he said just the right things," said Agatha.

"He's probably down in that bunker. We have to find it, and him," said Pacifica. "We're running out of food down here, anyway."

"We'll have to be careful. The upper level of museum isn't safe," said Agatha. "Last time I was up there I saw living dinosaur bones running around."

"The bunker is in a fake tree near the Mystery Shack," said Pacifica. "We'll move out and find it. Stan Pines must know more about Bill than anyone alive. We'll work with him on a plan."

Preston Northwest moaned.

"Yes, 'Father dear', you can come with us," said Pacifica. "I made a commitment to help you survive and I'm sticking to it."


	5. Shack

Chapter Five: Shack

Pacifica, Preston, and Agatha emerged from the secret meeting rooms of the Society of the Blind Eye, back into the main part of the museum.

"I'll scout ahead," said Pacifica. "I'm the fastest runner."

Pacifica moved down the hallway, on the alert for any sign of the living dinosaur bones that Agatha had warned her about.

As she walked past the diorama called "Romance in Settler's Times," the living settler man dropped the non-living settler woman he was carrying and grabbed her up instead!

"Let me go!" Pacifica shouted, kicking and struggling.

"Nope! I've got me a purty young bride now," said the settler.

Preston Northwest charged up and punched the settler in the face.

The settler seemed barely fazed by this. "Get your own woman, hombre! And take off that hood so's I can see your face!"

The settler grabbed Preston's hood and pulled it down.

"Tarnation! It's a wuller-de-wust!" yelled the settler. He dropped Pacifica and ran.

"Thanks, Dad," said Pacifica. "You really helped. Now let's get out of here before anything else happens."

* * *

They sneaked down a back alley, avoiding a patrol of eye bats.

"See, here's where I painted new Blind Eye Society marks," said Agatha.

Pacifica looked more closely, and saw small lettering in pen.

"Dipper here," Pacifica read to herself. "Mabel and Grunkle Stan, where are you?"

"Dipper's still alive!" thought Pacifica. "At least, he was a little while ago. But he's separated from his family. I hope we can find him again."

* * *

It was a only a mile from town to the Mystery Shack, but it took a long time to get there, working their way through the woods and dodging wandering monsters. Even the woods had become strange; some trees had giant feet. Once they heard a giant monster calling for people to get into its mouth, but it didn't spot them.

When they got close, they saw a purple wave coming. It was breaking over a bubble around the Mystery Shack. They ran for it, and all got in, except that Pacifica was caught by the tail of the wave as she pushed her father in ahead of her. However, she was not affected.

As they entered the gift shop the bell over the door rang.

Stan Pines came out from behind the vending machine holding a shotgun. "No freeloaders!"

"We have money," Pacifica said.

"I'm only taking gold," said Stan.

"Dad, show him your gold watch," said Pacifica.

"Alright," Stan said, "You can shop. But my prices are high because of the emergency. That watch will buy you a can of Brown Meat."

"We really wanted to see you, Mr. Pines," said Pacifica. "You're an expert on the supernatural."

"No, I am not," said Stan. "Not on this kind of stuff."

"You wrote the journals, didn't you?" asked Pacifica.

"The author of the journals? My brother," said Stan.

"We found out the author's name is Stanford Pines. That's you," said Pacifica.

"No. I've been using his name, but now he's back," said Stan.

"Where is he?"

"I don't know. I was out putting up Mystery Shack signs and I was chased away by a giant goat. When I got back, nobody else was here. Dipper, Mabel, and Stanford were gone."

"Who has the journals?" asked Pacifica.

"Why do you want to know?" asked Stan.

"They may have clues about what to do," said Pacifica. "And there's a secret bunker where your brother may be hiding."

"Dipper and Ford have the real ones, but I have copies," said Stan. He got out a stack of papers from a secret compartment under the gift shop rug.

"Good," said Pacifica.

"There was writing in it that only showed up under black light. I think all of that copied, too," said Stan. "I have a very special copier."

"One more thing,"said Pacifica. "Is there a picture of a wheel with symbols?"

"I remember seeing one of those in Journal 2," said Stan, flipping through the pages. "Here it is."

Pacifica gasped when she saw the image in the center of the wheel. "That's him, the demon Bill!"

She got out a pencil and gave the eye of the image a hard poke. In the distance she thought she heard an loud "Ow!"

"Did you hear that?" she asked. "A yell of pain, like maybe the demon is vulnerable to his image?"

Preston shook his head.

"I didn't hear anything," said Agatha.

"Maybe it was my imagination," said Pacifica.

"I might have heard something," said Stan. "But my hearing's not what it was."

"You try poking it," Pacifica suggested to the others.

There was no reaction when Agatha poked it, or Preston. But Pacifica thought she heard another reaction when Stan did it.

"It may only work for people on the Wheel," said Pacifica. "People who have a representation on the same image. We can use this as a weapon, maybe drive him away."

"More likely it'll just make him mad. He may send monsters to attack this place," said Stan. "We need to get out of here and find that bunker."

"Is there anything about the bunker in your pages?" Pacifica asked.

"In Journal 3," said Stan.

He found a page that showed a tree, and shined black light on it, revealing a secret staircase leading down below ground.

"That's it," said Pacifica. "Do you know where the tree is?"

"I have a pretty good idea," said Stan. "I know these woods pretty well. One time I found a tree that sounded like metal when I tapped it."

"We'd better go," said Agatha.

"There's one more thing we might need," said Stan. "I saw in a room below."

He ran down and got a small box.

"My brother has a lot of weird dice for playing a nerd game, but this one is special. Last time I rolled it a wizard and some monsters showed up. They weren't friendly, but maybe if we find Ford or Dipper they may know how to make it do something useful."

"Hurry, I hear something crashing through the woods!" said Pacifica.

They headed out into the woods by the back way, just as a crew of monsters arrived at the gift shop door.


	6. Shelter

With Stan to guide them, they found the fake metal tree. At first, they could not find anything but a panel with a device inside that opened an empty compartment in the ground.

Pacifica spotted something. "That looks like a lever up there. Maybe that would open something."

"But how will we get up to it?" asked Stan.

"A human pyramid," said Pacifica. "Dad, you're the biggest and strongest; you get on the bottom. Then Stan, then Agatha, and then I will climb up."

Preston groaned.

"Come on, you can do it," said Pacifica. "There's a better shelter down there, and food."

It wasn't easy, but they finally got into a stack, maintaining balance by holding onto the tree. Pacifica reached the lever with her golf club and pushed it up.

The tree started going down, and the human pyramid broke up. Pacifica clung to the tree until she was near enough to the ground to jump off.

Steps popped out of the hole around the tree, forming a spiral staircase leading down. They all went down cautiously.

"Huh. This is something," said Stan.

"You didn't know this was here?" asked Pacifica.

"If I had, I would have given tours," said Stan. "This stairway would be a great money-making attraction."

* * *

Old Man McGucket was down in the shelter room, and he had made a huge mess of it. Garbage was strewn everywhere. (A few bees buzzed around in the corners, but most had died for lack of flowers in their habitat.)

"McGucket, what are you doing here in my brother's shelter?" asked Stan.

"Whoo-eee, it's nice to see some other people. I thought I was the only man left alive from the Apocalypse," said McGucket.

"What do you know about the Apocalypse?" asked Pacifica.

"Nothin' much, just that something real bad was a'coming. I've been looking for a safe shelter and I finally found this one. I don't have much memory left, but I recollectified that someone told me there was a place like this near the Mystery Shack."

"Things are horrible out there," said Pacifica. "Monsters have taken over and it's hell on earth. We were hoping the author of the journal would be here."

"I used to work with that feller, but I still don't remember much about him yet," said McGucket.

"We need to use this shelter as a base to plan what to do," said Pacifica.

"I don't mind sharing," said McGucket. "I was getting' real bored and lonely. I've stopped playing checkers with myself, because I'm losing too much money. I suspect I'm cheating. Would you all introduce yourselves?"

"This is my father, Preston Northwest. And Agatha Doakes, and Stan Pines," said Pacifca.

"Now I wish I hadn't married my beard," said McGucket, staring at Agatha. "Too late now."

"Good, because I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on Earth," said Agatha.

"I reckon I almost am, but you got two other choices," said McGucket.

"I hope there's more room than this one room," said Pacifica. "We need a little space."

"There's a tunnel over yonder, but I was afeared to go into a room with all sorts of crazy symbols on the walls," said McGucket.

* * *

They crawled through the tunnel and found the symbol room.

"Careful, this looks like a trap," said Stan. "My brother was always thinking up traps when we were growing up. He always wanted to make a room where the walls closed in if you didn't push the right sequence of symbols."

"Is your brother crazy?" asked Pacifica.

"Yes, a bit," said Stan. "The key is probably on one of the Journal pages."

He shuffled through them and found a page with the symbols. With the portable black light he found the right sequence.

"Nothing should go off if we don't step on a trigger plate," said Stan.

They walked carefully and avoided one square that looked a little different than the others. Nothing triggered then, but when they tried to open the other door the first door slammed shut and the cubes on the walls began closing in on them. The door out wouldn't open.

"We're all gonna be pancakes," said McGucket. "And I don't have any syrup."

"You'd better be right about that key sequence," said Pacifica to Stan.

Stan pointed out the right squares and they pressed them in sequence, opening the other hatch. The cubes continued to close in, but because they were prepared there was plenty of time to get out.

The new room had control panels and a view screen into another room with a set of tubes. Something was frozen inside one of them.

"Dipper!" said Stan. "He's frozen in there!"

"One of the enemies of our Society has perished," said Agatha. "This is good."

"Agatha, Dipper was a friend of mine," said Pacifica.

Agatha frowned but said nothing.

"We have to thaw him out," said Stan. "Maybe he can be revived."

"Hold on, there's something fishy about this," said Pacifica. "I don't think it's really Dipper. That's the exact pose he was in when he turned into wood at our mansion a few days ago."

"He turned into wood?" asked Stan. "What do you mean?"

"There was a high-level ghost haunting us, but I broke the curse and Dipper recovered," said Pacifica.

Preston shook his head in disapproval.

Stan looked over the papers on the console. "It says the tube contains a shape-changer that could look like anyone."

"That explains it," said Pacifica. "We don't want to open that."

* * *

They found the decontamination shower that lead into a maze of caves.

"Plenty of space for everyone," said Stan. "But I'm going back out."

"Why?" asked Pacifica.

"I was keeping the Mystery Shack going in hopes that Dipper, Mabel, and Ford would come back there. Then I hoped they were all down here. Since they're not, I have to go find them if I can," said Stan.

"I'll come with you," said Pacifica.

"I want to stay here where it's safe," said Agatha.

"Me too," said McGucket. "I'm a-staying put."

Preston Northwest nodded his head vigorously.

"All right, stay if you want," said Pacifica. "Agatha, would you look after my dad if he needs anything?"

"I can do that," said Agatha.

"Mebbe the three of us can play checkers to pass the time," said McGucket.

* * *

It was easier getting back through the symbol room a second time. There was a button to open the room again and no traps activated on the way out.

Stan and Pacifica went up the winding stairs and got outside.

"I had one more idea that might be worth trying," said Pacifica. "Have you looked at that image of the Wheel under black light?"

"Nope, never did," said Stan.

Scrawled on the paper they found the words, "I realize now this a prophecy of how Bill intends to get power in this world. I suspect a time loop is involved. But why is my old spare pair of glasses on there, when I know I'm the six-fingered hand?"

"I kept those glasses when my brother was sucked into a portal to another dimension," said Stan. "They were all I had left, a reminder I had to get him back."

"The Wheel seems to be a key," said Pacifica. "I wish we knew how to use it against Bill."

"Let's go. We need to find Dipper and Mabel," said Stan.

"What if we used that magic die you have, and rolled it on this image? It pulled a wizard from a game. It might pull others of the Wheel to us, including Dipper."

"That's crazy," said Stan. "It might bring the wizard back."

"Who knows? We have nothing to lose," said Pacifica.

"At least neither of us is that smart," said Stan.

"Speak for yourself," said Pacifica. "Why does that matter?"

"The wizard wanted to eat the brains of smart people," said Stan.

"I'll take that risk," said Pacifica.

"It's your brain," said Stan. He got out the infinity-sided die and handed it to her.

"Here goes," said Pacifica, rolling it onto the image of the Wheel.

There was a flash of light.


	7. Spinning

The first thing that Pacifica noticed was that she was in clean, pressed clothes, not the wrinkled and smelly dress she had been wearing for three days straight.

The sun was shining brightly, and she was at a small fair exactly like the one the Mystery Shack had held earlier in the summer.

"That was a good one, Pacifica," said a voice beside her.

"Yeah, that's Mabel's true twin, all right," said the other.

Pacifica turned to both sides and saw her two former posse members, Heather and Tiffany. Both had stopped talking with her after the mini-golf challenge with Mabel. They claimed that Pacifica had sent Tiffany a rude text, which she denied doing. Now that Pacifica knew about the golf-ball people it made sense.

"What is going on?" Pacifica thought. "Have I been sent back in time? They're talking like I just said something. Maybe I mentally time-traveled, and I'm re-living that day at the fair."

Pacifica tested the situation by asking, "So, what is Mabel up to?"

"I think Mabel is going to try to guess the weight of that pig and win it," said Tiffany.

"It takes one to know one," said Heather.

Mabel won the pig and walked away carrying it triumphantly.

Pacifica thought, "According to my father this fair had something to do with the demon taking power. What can I do differently? Just don't win a chicken?"

She didn't go the the booth to try to guess the weight of a chicken. Nothing seemed to be different, but then...

* * *

"That was a good one, Pacifica."

"Yeah, that's Mabel's true twin, all right."

"Time has reset!" Pacifica thought "Am I going to be stuck re-living the same few minutes forever? Why did I have to roll that magic die? Maybe it's like that movie, and I'll be stuck until I do exactly the right thing. And maybe that means I have to win that dumb chicken after all."

This time she went to the booth after Mabel and won the chicken, which pecked her on the head.

* * *

"That was a good one, Pacifica."

"Yeah, that's Mabel's true twin, all right."

"Not again!" thought Pacifica. "How do I get out?"

Pacifica looked around desperately, and saw Dipper at a ball toss. "Maybe if I talk to him, he could get some ideas out of his nerd book to help. But he hates me right now... he'll just think I'm playing a trick on him."

It had to be tried. She walked over and saw Dipper's toss. The throw bounced and hit the girl he was with in the eye. An older boy came up and comforted her, offering her his snow cone to soothe her sore eye. Dipper stepped away from the booth, pulled a short length of tape from a tape measure, and let it snap.

* * *

"That was a good one, Pacifica."

"Yeah, that's Mabel's true twin, all right."

Now she knew: Dipper was causing the loops. She watched as he tried to toss the ball a different way, still hitting his friend in the eye, this time knocking down a whole bag of baseballs.

Mabel still won the pig, as she had done every time through the loop.

* * *

The next reset was a little further back. They saw Mabel looking longingly at the pig, but then she was called away by her brother. Pacifica didn't make any remarks about Mabel finding her true twin because because she didn't want to hear her friends saying the same lines again.

Pacifica saw Mabel have a brief discussion with Dipper and then climb onto the roof of the Mystery Shack.

"Hey Pacifica," said Tiffany, "You know what you ought to do? Win that pig before she does."

Pacifica knew the old her would not have hesitated for a second. It was the perfect opportunity for revenge. But now she had an uneasy feeling. "I don't know..."

"If you won't do it, I will," said Tiffany, starting to march up to the booth.

"Hold on, this is my job," said Pacifica.

Tiffany backed off and let her leader proceed.

"I want to win that pig," said Pacifica, pointing to the same one that Mabel wanted.

"I'm not holdin' him for nobody. If'n you can guess the critter's weight, you can take the critter home!" said the farmer running the booth.

"Fifteen pounds," said Pacifica, who had heard the correct weight on a previous iteration.

"Are you some kind of witch?" said the farmer.

"I am a Northwest, and we never lose," said Pacifica.

"Ah, that explains it," said the farmer.

He handed over the pig on a leash.

"He's all yours! No one else's! Ol' 15-Poundy. Yours. Forever!"

In the background Pacifica heard Mabel's wail of despair.

Pacifica felt that this was the moment of truth, the point at which she had to make a change.

"Mabel Pines!" she shouted. "If you want this pig, come over here right now."

Mabel ran up to her, looking angry. "Is this some kind of trick? You just want to mock me, don't you? Go ahead. I'll win next time around."

"No, I won this pig for you before someone else did," said Pacifica. "Take it before I change my mind."

She handed the leash to Mabel. Mabel swept the pig up in her arms.

"Pacifica! I can't believe it! You're actually doing something nice for me!" said Mabel. "This makes up for everything. You have a friend for life."

Tiffany called out, "What are you doing, Pacifica? Have you gone soft?"

"It's the right thing to do," Pacifica said.

"Come on, Heather," said Tiffany coldly. "Pacifica is no longer worthy of our loyalty."

The two ex-friends stomped away.

Mabel ran to Dipper, who was just getting out of the Tunnel of Love and Corn Dogs with his date. Wendy ran on to get a funnel cake, but Mabel held Dipper back to talk with him.

"Dipper, guess what! I thought I had lost Waddles, but Pacifica won him to give to me."

"That's a shock," said Dipper. "After what I did to her family with the founder stuff, too."

"She may act tough, but inside she's a sweetheart," said Mabel.

"We both got what we wanted," said Dipper. "I kept Wendy from Robbie, and you got your pig. I guess I don't need this time machine any more."

Dipper held up the time machine, not realizing that Robbie had come up behind him and heard what he said.

"Oh, so you cheated and used a time machine to beat me," said Robbie. "Well, I'm going to take it and fix things so Wendy goes out with me!"

He grabbed at the device, and Dipper struggled with him to keep it.

"You let my bro bro alone!" said Mabel, setting her pig down and joining the fray.

Dipper held the time machine away from Robbie as they fought. The end of it caught on one of the Tunnel of Love cars, and pulled the tape out. Mabel saw what was happening, She pushed Robbie away and grabbed onto Dipper as the tape snapped back, causing them both to disappear in a flash.

"It wasn't me. It wasn't my fault," cried Robbie, running away.

A moment later Dipper and Mabel emerged from a portable outhouse. Dipper's had lost a shoe and his clothing looked scorched.

"That was wild ride through time, but we got out of it all right," said Dipper. "Are we back to the right time line?"

"Dipper, come and get your funnel cake while it's hot," Wendy called.

"Yeah, we're in the right one," said Dipper.

"We sure are," said Mabel, picking up Waddles and smiling at Pacifica.

* * *

Pacifica gave a start as she found herself returned to the present. For a moment she felt strange as a new set of summer memories were added on top of the old ones. It had been a summer of new friendships, spending time with Dipper and Mabel and sharing their adventures. Dipper had gladly helped her break the family curse. Mabel had invited her to their thirteenth birthday party, but Pacifica couldn't go because she was still grounded.

"You were gone for a second," said Stan. "What happened?"

"I visited the day of the Mystery Fair," said Pacifica. "I make a little difference but I couldn't fix everything. The world is still ending."

"It was worth a try," said Stan. "Let's go back the others at the Mystery Shack."

"Don't you mean the Bunker?" asked Pacifica.

"We decided not to use that, right?" said Stan. "It's not as defensible; only one exit. We're doing fine beating off the monsters at the Shack."

"Is there anyone down there?" asked Pacifica.

"Nope," said Stan. "Unless someone snuck in there after we got McGucket out."

More memories came to Pacifica now. Bringing her father straight to the Mystery Shack, where she knew she had good friends. Persuading Stan to make it a place of refuge and resistance, instead of just an opportunity for price gouging. She had made a real difference after all.

Stan picked up the infinity-sided die and the Wheel page, which now showed a llama facing the other direction, with a little smile on its face.


End file.
